Voice of the people (letter).

Hot Topic

January 12, 1996|By Lynn Vincentnathan.

AURORA — Who is ultimately responsible for the excessive heat-related deaths this past summer? We have to look to the excessive gas-guzzling, coal-burning, water-wasting, raw resource-consuming, inordinate meat-eating people like us--Americans--who contribute most significantly to global warming.

It is now 95 percent certain that global warming is occurring. Why wait for 99 percent certainty? Small island states, which will be devastated by hurricanes and sea rises due to global warming, are asking us to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent. Why refuse, when doing so through energy and resource efficiency and conservation can--without reducing productivity or living standards--save money as well as lives?